As a huge fan of British TV, and an openly honest stealer of television shows on the Internets, I was likely one of a small number of North Americans to view the series on Britain’s Channel 4 called Hugh’s Chicken Run in which food journalist and farmer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tries to get his entire town of Axminster to switch from intensively-farmed (and cheap) chicken to slightly more spendy free-range chicken.
In a three-part series, HFW sets up a chicken farm in which he raises half a barn of chickens as they would be in an intensive farming operation (no poultry operation would give him permission to film on their premises, so he was forced to create his own), and the other half as free-range, with more space, access to the outdoors, toys and activities, etc. He also trolls the aisles of his local supermarket to try and convince customers to purchase the free-range birds.
This is the point where Greg and I looked at each other and went “Waitaminute!!! Whaaaa???”
That you can get free-range chicken in UK supermarkets at all is a huge step up from here in Canada, where you’ll need to visit a speciality butcher to find free-range birds. They are available to restaurants, and can be found at some of the vendors at St. Lawrence Market here in Toronto, but at a chain like Price Chopper or Loblaw?? Not a chance.
In conjunction with the Chicken Run series, UK chef Jamie Oliver did a show called Jamie’s Fowl Dinners where he not only looked at chicken production, but egg production as well.
Both shows got a lot of flack for their use of shock tactics – Oliver gassed live male chicks, just as they would have on a regular chicken farm. Male birds are useless in an egg production facility, and the breed doesn’t make good meat, so males are disposed of as soon as they can be identified. HFW nearly broke down as he was forced to cull birds from his intensively-raised flock.
Throughout both shows, and in much of the criticism that has been levied in the past few weeks since the shows aired, the continued refrain seems to be that Britons can’t afford the more expensive free-range products. Cheap factory chickens go 2 for 5 pounds at most chain supermarkets, and lower income folks seem insistent that they can’t afford anything more. And more importantly, that they need these cheap chickens to feed their families.
Which was cause for my second “Waitaminute!!” moment while watching these shows. How about, people, if you just ate less meat??? I’m not saying stop eating meat, but seriously, do you really need two chickens a week? I’m not buying the protein excuse, either, because if people are truly on a budget, other sources of protein such as beans and legumes are far cheaper than chicken, even at 2fer.
So while I’m fully in support of the efforts made by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, maybe the real key to success is not just in teaching people how to make their free-range bird go further via dishes like soup, risotto and stock, but in showing them the alternatives. Britons eat an exceptional amount of chicken per capita, mostly because it’s cheap. If these chefs spent an equal amount of time showing people how to meet their daily nutritional requirements via other, cheaper, means, perhaps it would be easier for those folks to occasionally justify the cost of a more expensive free-range bird.
For more information on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken Out campaign, check out the website.
January 29, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I think you will find that most of us English don’t just eat chicken. Also we don’t just eat food because it is cheap. Plus, these chefs DO in fact show us recipes where other nutritional foods are used to meet our “daily requirements”.
Throughout this it is “Britons eat too much chicken”, “Britons can’t afford organic chicken” I think that many people out there think that us Brits just eat crap all the time, “veg boiled to mush” and stodgy puddings. This is just not true. Many of us Do eat healthily and do buy Free Range Chickens. But the marketing in supermarkets has a lot to answer for. These “deals” on meat are so in your face and up at the front that you barely notice the better kinder meat in a tiny section. People that live busy lives, and not just those on a low income, often just grab whats there and visable, and yes sometimes cheaper. But it doesn’t make then ignorant to how to cook more nutritional meals.
I am sorry to seem rude, but come down off your pedestal.
January 29, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I am sorry about what I wrote, but it was just how it seemed to me.
January 30, 2008 at 8:55 am
Oh come on… at least you can GET free-range chicken in the supermarket and don’t have to go all over town on a quest for it. The section is too little and you can’t see it??? Give me a break. It’s there if you look for it.
The folks in the series really didn’t know how to make use of a whole chicken – that’s why HFW showed them how to make risotto using the bits from the carcass. One couple admitted to eating just the breasts and throwing the rest away.
Having been a vegetarian for 7 years, I’m really not going to believe your comment about people not knowing how to cook nutritional meals, I’m sure many people do know about beans and legumes, but an awful lot of people criticized my diet because they truly thought meat was the only way to get enough protein. Maybe there was some selective editing going on with the series, but most of the people on the show seemed pretty clueless as to the whole issue – and were awfully quick to make up excuses as to why they had to buy those cheap chickens instead of trying something else.
January 30, 2008 at 10:31 am
It strikes me as pretty narrow-minded to think one programme is representative of a whole countries eating habits.
I seem to remember me actually living in the uk in the past so believe I am better fit to speak on the eating habits than you.
I didn’t say you couldn’t see the free range/organic section, I said barely notice it, and my point is that marketing plays a part, not everyone is as knowledgable on food, in the uk AND in your country I am sure.
They obviously pick these people to make a point not realising that some people do not realise that EVERYONE in a country isn’t actually like that.
I never said once that “people” do not know how to cook nutritional meals, nice of you to just make that up for me.
Well maybe us Brits are too stupid to know about free range chicken, but most I know do realise that meat is not the only way to have protein in a diet, so y’know maybe not so stupid.
There are many people in other countries that do not (whether they know how to or not) eat nutritional meals and the Brits are only the 2nd most Obese country in the world.
Before you start airing your opinions maybe you should think about whether you are really talking out against the eating habits or the people eating it because the way it reads it seems more anti Brit than anything else.
January 30, 2008 at 10:47 am
Bev,
You seem to be looking for excuses to start an argument and your “anti-Brit” insult is really drawing at straws. You make an awful lot of assumptions about me and my knowledge of the country and its people, which is a foolish and ignorant thing to do. Just because you lived there once doesn’t make you more of an expert than anyone else, and how really terribly silly of you to assume you know more about the subject than I do without knowing me personally. Maybe I am of British descent, and spend time there on a regular basis. Maybe I have piles of British relatives. Don’t assume that you know everything about me and can make judgements on me personally based on one blog post and your own defensive biases.
Also, it would help your argument immensely if you stopped contradicting yourself.
Thanks for playing Bev… you’re welcome back when you can form a coherent argument that stays on point and doesn’t make grossly incorrect assumptions about people.
January 30, 2008 at 12:03 pm
As a former resident of Hackney, a Borough in the Fair City of London, I would say that the free range chicken question is probably one of cost and availability AND supply and demand.
Low income families cannot afford free range. They want to eat chicken. Tesco (and the rest) provide it.
It’s simply the easy thing to do.
When you think about it in the short term, I guess the chickens are the biggest losers.
January 30, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Thanks Adam, for being the voice of reason.
“Low income families cannot afford free range. They want to eat chicken. Tesco (and the rest) provide it.”
My original point was simply that if people chose to eat less chicken, replacing the meat with healthier, cheaper (vegetarian) options, they could still afford the occasional free-range chicken. I guess it goes to the overall philosophy that Westerners of all nationalities could get by on far less meat than we currently consume.
February 1, 2008 at 11:46 am
Sheryl,
Your eat less meat point is one that is probably a tough one for many people (and they may not even realize it), but of course it is a sound argument. I think many families are used to picking a meat as their protein, and do not explore the possibilities of vegetarian protein sources like you mentioned. I try to lead by example with my clients and friends as there are endless tasty ways to incorporate legumes and other veggie proteins into your diet – and beans is prob one of the cheapest proteins you can stock up on. It’s all a matter of spreading information, and learning and then changing attitudes (the hard part)!
February 1, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Cordelia,
Absolutely true. Think about how people describe food – “pork chops and applesauce”, “steak and eggs”, “roast turkey” – the protein is the focus of the meal, always. If people are not going to give up meat completely, we need to learn to think of meat as a garnish, not the main ingredient. And looking at alternative sources of protein meets a trio of benefits – health, financial and environmental.